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Back The Wilderwomen Save as PDF
Chapters (37)
  1. Copyright Notice
  2. Dedication
  3. BEFORE
  4. AFTER
  5. ONE THOUGHTS ON SUN HATS
  6. TWO TIME FOR CAKE
  7. THREE TWELVE MONTHS
  8. FOUR PSYCHIC KARAOKE
  9. FIVE A SECOND SLEEPING BAG
  10. SIX SIX MONTHS
  11. SEVEN THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE PANCAKE
  12. EIGHT SIX MONTHS
  13. NINE FOLLOW THE MUSIC
  14. TEN THE STARS ARE BRIGHTER IN THE DESERT
  15. ELEVEN SIX MONTHS
  16. TWELVE EVERY STAR HAS A SONG
  17. THIRTEEN PSYCHIC KARAOKE
  18. FOURTEEN ONE MONTH
  19. FIFTEEN A WELL-TRAVELED HAT
  20. SIXTEEN JOEL VS. THE VOLCANO
  21. SEVENTEEN TWO WEEKS
  22. EIGHTEEN HOUSE OF MEMORIES
  23. NINETEEN IF TREES COULD TALK
  24. TWENTY THREE DAYS
  25. TWENTY-ONE SEARCH PARTY
  26. TWENTY-TWO NOT THE SAME ZADIE
  27. TWENTY-THREE WAVES OF SMOKE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR THE DAY OF
  29. TWENTY-FIVE THE SKY IS FULL OF BIRDS
  30. TWENTY-SIX NEST
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. EPILOGUE
  33. TWENTY-EIGHT A SONG ABOUT A BIRD
  34. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  35. Also by Ruth Emmie Lang
  36. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  37. Newsletter Sign-up

Finn peered back up through the skylight. If she could figure out what their mom’s sixth sense was, maybe she could figure out where she went. Slowly her mind began to settle. She searched for Leo in the night sky but couldn’t figure out which grouping of stars it was. A dream visited her a few moments later in the shape of a silver lion.

Zadie, on the other hand, was wide awake. Something was keeping her up, something that had kept her up many nights over the past five years. Finn was right to think something was wrong with their mom. It was even possible that Nora had a sixth sense she’d been hiding from them; in fact Zadie was almost sure she did. But was it the sole reason she’d walked out on her daughters? Zadie doubted it. When Nora had stepped out that door, she’d looked calm, collected. She’d deliberately slipped off that anklet like it was gum on her shoe, like she didn’t want to be reminded of who F and Z were.

Zadie knew all this because she’d seen her mom do it.

And she’d done nothing to stop her.

ELEVEN SIX MONTHS

(UNTIL NORA WILDER’S DISAPPEARANCE)

“Tell me a story.”

Nora gently brushed her thumb over the apple of her younger daughter’s cheek, wiping away a smudge of campfire soot. An electric lantern cast an orange light on their faces, projecting their shadows onto the tent wall. Nora had dimmed it as low as it would go so Zadie could sleep. Her older child was almost an adult, but with her eyes closed and her mouth in a sleepy pout, she still looked like the little girl who couldn’t fall asleep unless Nora rubbed her feet and hummed “Sweet Baby James.”

“I thought you said you were too old for bedtime stories.” Nora said in a whisper that sounded like beach grass on a windy day.

“A scary one.”

“Are you sure? Right before bedtime?”

Finn nodded, then quickly added, “But no monsters.”

“Okay. No monsters. And you’re not afraid of ghosts. What else do you find scary?”

“I dunno … bears?”

Nora smiled, amused. “Bears, huh? I like it. A more plausible threat than monsters. Heightens the tension.”

“Nice bears, though.”

“Well, that’s not a very scary story, is it?”

“I guess not.” Finn rolled onto her stomach and began absent-mindedly zipping and unzipping her sleeping bag. “I like camping with you.”

Nora brushed a stray hair off her daughter’s forehead. “I like camping with you, too.”

“Did you go camping with your mom?”

Nora stiffened. “No, honey. My, uh, mom and I didn’t do things like this together.”

“Was she special like me and Zadie?”

“No one’s as special as you girls.”

“Are you special?”